5 Years of Teaching Precision Agriculture at a California Community College West Hills Community College Farm of the Future

1
5 Years of Teaching Precision Agriculture at a
California Community CollegeWest Hills
Community CollegeFarm of the Future
2
Overview

• West Hills College
• Coalinga
• Program Timeline
• Course Descriptions
• Future of Program
• Difficulties

3
Where is Coalinga?
4
Westside Farming

• Large Fields (gt160 acre)
• Large Farms (gt5,000 acre)
• Expensive Water (gt150/acre-foot)

• Major Crops
• Cotton
• Almonds
• Pistachio
• Tomato
• Melons
• Winter Wheat
• Garlic

5
Before 2000

• Animal Science
• Rodeo Program

6
2000

• Hired Dr. Larry Rathbun
• 5 Full-Time Instructors
• 47-Member Advisory Committee
• 723 Years Combined Agricultural Experience
• Focus on Technology
• Suggested Precision Agriculture Curriculum

7
Grants

• Total 608,294
• Irrigation Technology DWR - 99,000
• Precision Ag Outreach CCCCO - 313,901
• Irrigation Technology CCCCO - 99,663
• GPS Equipment CCCCO - 29,255
• Firebaugh Technology Alliance Com. Dev. Corp. -
  50,000
• Special Populations Recruitment CCCCO - 16,475

8
Equipment and Facilities

• GPS field mapping and hand held computers
• GPS guidance systems and base stations
• 20 station GIS laboratory
• Industry standard GPS/GIS software
• Soil and water monitoring telemetry
• Veris soil mapping technology
• Variable rate controllers
• 600 acre college farm

9
2001

• Hired Adjunct Faculty Kurt Quade
• Taught as 2 Year 4 Semester Curriculum
• Part of Traditional Crop Science Associate Program

10
2002

• Hired Me
• Short Courses
• 3-Day Introduction to Precision Agriculture
• 1-Day HGIS/Aerial Imagery
• Good Response 300 Participants

11
2003

• Disharmony
• Consulting
• No Agriculture Classes

12
2004-2005

• Hired Me Ag Science Technology
• 1 Full-Time Agriculture Instructor
• Precision Agriculture only program

13
2004 Curriculum

• 10 months certificate
• 24 months Associate of Science Degree
• Prepare for university transfer

14
Program Curriculum

• Fall Semester
• Precision Agriculture
• Plant Science
• Computers in AG
• Mathematics
• Work Experience
• 15 units

• Spring Semester
• GPS Crop Monitoring
• Soils
• California Water
• Intro to GIS
• Work Experience
• 15 units

15
Precision Agriculture

• Terminology
• Hands-On
• Hit-the-Ground-Running
• Real-World Projects
• Working with Industry

• Introduction
• GPS
• GIS
• Imagery/Remote Sensing
• SSToolbox
• HGIS
• Variable Rate Technology
• Guidance
• Direct Sensing
• Projects

16
Plant Science

• Introduction
• Botany
• CSU/UC Transferable
• Farm Garden
• Hands-On

• Understand Plants
• Agriculture Experience
• Tractor Experience

17
Computers in Agriculture

• Windows
• Microsoft Office
• Word
• Excel
• PowerPoint

• Computer Experience
• Windows Very Important
• Excel Very Important

18
Mathematics

• Basic Mathematics

• Need to do Simple Calculations
• Acreage
• Geometry
• Important for Soils

19
Work Experience

• Credit for Work Experience
• Work On-Farm
• Preferably Precision Agriculture

• Hands-On
• Work on their Own

20
GPS Crop Monitoring

• Advanced Concepts
• Consulting
• Learning New Software
• Learning New Hardware

• Learn on Own
• Real-World Situations
• No Help in the Real-World

21
Soils

• CSU/UC Transferable
• Basic Soils

• Soils Very Important in CA Ag
• Hands-On Labs

22
California Water

• California Water Issues
• Water Law
• Irrigation
• Surface
• Sprinklers
• Micro Irrigation

• Water Very Important in CA Ag
• Hands-On Labs

23
Introduction to GIS

• Taught in Geography Dept
• ArcView

• GIS Very Important

24
2005-2006 Changes

• Sales Incorporated
• Recruiting Recruiting Recruiting!

25
Difficulties

• Transfer vs. Certificate
• Recruitment
• More Jobs than Students
• Staying Current
• and Time
• Prerequisites
• Welding/Wiring
• Computer
• Agriculture
• Too Much Info to Learn in 1 Year